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Catch-It: 4-h-ers snag projects for 2015 fair

Contests of chasing, catching animals annual tradition

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
08/07/2014 08:59:40 PM MDT

Catching pigs was a muddy affair for the seven participants in the Catch-It Pig contest Wednesday night at the 2014 Morgan County Fair. All the kids were able to snag pigs, though, albeit some of them with a little help. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone declared that anyone who got muddy from participating in the Catch-It contests would get into the dance for free. Makenna Carlock, shown here, definitely qualified, as she fell into the mud while chasing the dairy cow she ultimately caught Wednesday night at the 2014 Morgan County Fair. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

After a few short instructions about how to humanely grab a specific type of animal, anywhere from two to 10 of the animals get released, and the 4-H kids have to try to catch them.

Once a kid gets hold of the animal — there are contests for rabbits, chickens, pigs, goats, lambs, dairy cows and beef cows — it becomes his or hers to raise as a 4-H project for next year's Morgan County Fair, or in the case of dairy cows, the fair in two years.

That scene plays out every year at the fair during the Catch-It contests.

Some years, it's a muddy, messy scene, much like it was Wednesday night at the Morgan County Fairgrounds.

In fact, it was so muddy that Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone declared that any of the Catch-It participants who went to the big dance all muddied up would get in for free.

Makenna Carlock certainly would have met that requirement. During her quest to snag a dairy cow, Carlock fell down in some deep, wet mud.

Other kids lost their boots while chasing after pigs, goats and lambs.

But it was a little less muddy for the youngest kids, who were going after the rabbits and chickens inside a human fence outside of the main Catch-It area.

After Colorado State University Extension Agent Marlin Eisenach gave the signal, the little kids got to chase the rabbits spread around the ring lined with people until they snagged one.

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The same thing happened with the chickens, although these animals were feistier than the rabbits, giving the slightly older kids a bit harder of a time in catching them.

The contest then moved into the main ring and all of its mud, freshly created by heavy rains earlier that evening.

The pigs had no problem with the mud and took off in it, making the kids chasing them enter the muddier areas.

Savannah Loose, 9, catches a rabbit by its hind legs as a helper keeps it from pulling away during the Catch-It contest Wednesday night at the 2014 Morgan County Fair. All seven Catch-It Rabbit competitors snagged rabbits to raise for next year's fair. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

The goats seemed to shy away from the mud, though, and there were not as many muddy kids after that contest. However, there were some disappointed children, as there were only 10 goats and 16 competitors.

That was the only category with not enough animals to go around, though.

The lambs, which one audience member noted were "really big lambs," really took off, making the kids work to get them haltered. Some of the kids needed help getting a lamb back to the ring's entrance and livestock trailer, but there were plenty of helpers available.

For dairy cows, the animals again had no problem with the mud and seemed to really not want to get caught. But catching them was the name of the game, and that's part of how Carlock wound up down in the mud.

There were only two kids seeking beef cows, and while Reid Ernst got his pretty quickly, Karissa Schulte had some trouble catching hers. Both needed help to haul the large cows back over to the entrance, though.

Now, nearly all of these 4-H-ers have the animal or animals they will raise over the next year and then bring back to the fair next year to show what they were able to do with what they caught Wednesday night.

The ones who caught dairy cows, though, will have to wait even longer, as theirs are two-year projects and will be part of the 2016 Morgan County Fair.

Jade Gleason hauls through the mud the dairy cow she snagged during the Catch-It contest Wednesday night at the Morgan County Fair. The Catch-It dairy cows are two-year 4-H projects for the 2016 Morgan County Fair. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

These contests couldn't happen without the help of a wide variety of sponsors, who provide the resources for all the animals the kids caught. Eisenach recognized all of the sponsors before each contest, and the sponsors' names, organizations and businesses are printed in the 2014 Morgan County Fair Book.

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